A case study of South African mitigation actions (For the special issue on mitigation actions in five developing countries)

Abstract

This article seeks to understand how mitigation actions (MAs) are approached and conceptualised in South Africa, and then to capture the particular sets of issues and characteristics relating to these actions. As such it considers three main areas of enquiry from a bottom-up methodological perspective: first, what is the South African approach to individual MAs, second, what are the barriers and challenges to their implementation, and third, what by way of domestic measures and international support could assist in overcoming these challenges. Four examples of potential South African MAs are described and then analysed: the Bus Rapid Transport in Cape Town, the South African Renewables Initiative, the carbon tax and the National Sustainable Settlements Facility. We find from considering these examples that there are significant challenges to defining an MA. We also find that, generally, South Africa is good at identifying, analysing and designing activities to mitigate emissions, but lacks in effective implementation. Two main areas of implementation risk are suggested, namely, counteracting vested interests and the availability of finance. Suggestions are made regarding how these implementation challenges might be overcome with appropriate support at the domestic and international levels.

• mitigation action implementation
• financing
• NAMA
• South African renewables initiative
• carbon tax
• bus rapid transport
• national sustainable settlements facility.

Notes

The MAPS programme is a collaboration between a number of developing countries, promoting best practice in mitigation action planning or scenarios development. The MAPS programme seeks to achieve this by support to in-country processes informed by research. It seeks to share and deepen the leanings through collaboration between Southern experts supporting government programmes: http://www.mapsprogramme.org

While sustainable energy interventions are encouraged in the National Housing Code (2009), there is no corresponding budget allocated to finance these.

Including GS small-scale PoA registration, and continued work on large-scale methodologies which incorporate a ‘suppressed demand’ approach to crediting, and simplified monitoring requirements.

Further details of the development of the criteria is available in the full report: Tyler, Boyd, Coetzee, and Winkler (2011)

Further details of the development of the criteria is available in the full report: Tyler, Boyd, Coetzee, and Winkler (2011).